Storage and Playback API for Lua SDK

Message Persistence provides real-time access to the history of all messages published to PubNub. Each published message is timestamped to the nearest 10 nanoseconds and is stored across multiple availability zones in several geographical locations. Stored messages can be encrypted with AES-256 message encryption, ensuring that they are not readable while stored on PubNub's network. For more information, refer to Message Persistence.

Messages can be stored for a configurable duration or forever, as controlled by the retention policy that is configured on your account. The following options are available: 1 day, 7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, or Unlimited.

You can retrieve the following:

  • Messages
  • Message reactions
  • File Sharing (using File Sharing API)

History​

Requires Message Persistence

This method requires that Message Persistence is enabled for your key in the Admin Portal.

This function fetches historical messages of a channel.

It is possible to control how messages are returned and in what order, for example you can:

  • Search for messages starting on the newest end of the timeline (default behavior - reverse = false)
  • Search for messages from the oldest end of the timeline by setting reverse to true.
  • Page through results by providing a start OR end timetoken.
  • Retrieve a slice of the time line by providing both a start AND end timetoken.
  • Limit the number of messages to a specific quantity using the count parameter.
Start & End parameter usage clarity

If only the start parameter is specified (without end), you will receive messages that are older than and up to that start timetoken value. If only the end parameter is specified (without start) you will receive messages that match that end timetoken value and newer. Specifying values for both start and end parameters will return messages between those timetoken values (inclusive on the end value). Keep in mind that you will still receive a maximum of 100 messages even if there are more messages that meet the timetoken values. Iterative calls to history adjusting the start timetoken is necessary to page through the full set of results if more than 100 messages meet the timetoken values.

Method(s)​

To run History you can use the following method(s) in the Lua SDK:

pubnub_obj:history(params)
* required
ParameterDescription
params *
Type: table
Table of history parameters. See History Parameters for more details.

History Parameters​

PropertiesTypeRequiredDefaultDescription
Channel
string
Yes
none
The channel to get history for.
callback
function(r)
Yes
none
The function to call with received history.
error
function(r)
Optional
function(r) end
The function to call on failure, with result.
start
integer or string
Optional
none
The timetoken to start history from.
stop
integer or string
Optional
none
The timetoken to stop history at.
reverse
boolean
Optional
false
Whether to get the history in reverse (from chronological) order.
count
integer
Optional
10
Maximum number of messages to get in history (cannot be more than 100).
tip
Using the reverse parameter

Messages are always returned sorted in ascending time direction from history regardless of reverse. The reverse direction matters when you have more than 100 (or count, if it's set) messages in the time interval, in which case reverse determines the end of the time interval from which it should start retrieving the messages.

Basic Usage​

Retrieve the last 100 messages on a channel:

pubnub_obj:history({
    channel = "demo",
    count = 100,
    callback = function(response)
        textout(response)
    end,
    error = function (response)
        textout(response)
    end
})
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